Lily's Flowering Days - Sophomore Songs
by Nikkou-tan
Summary: Sequel to "Lily's Flowering Days: First Disc." Recent events have made most of the Vocaloids and Virus Hunters uneasy. Their relationships might start to crumble at the worst possible time. Soon they'll have to fight more dangerous enemy than any Virus and, with the help of a black - clad young Gunner, unravel the mysteries around Lily's infamous maker.
1. Show Stopping Stars

_**Track Number 1: Show Stopping Stars**_

The crowd chanted. Over and over they called her name. The stage pulsed with their cries like a heartbeat.

"Gumi, Gumi, Gumi…"

She smiled and walked into the spotlight. Her short green hair shone even brighter in the glow. She brought the microphone close to her lips.

"How is everyone doing tonight?" She asked, the audience roared in reply. Now their voices were like a wave, warm and welcoming. They drew a smile from Gumi as the sound ebbed into eager silence. "Glad to hear it! I'll admit I was a little nervous." She confessed. "I wasn't sure how my first solo concert would go but you've all made it the best! Thank you!"

The crowd clapped for her despite her humility - or maybe even because of it – but even inside the crescendo of applause she heard a clear whistle from behind her. She glanced back stage, a purple haired man winked. Meanwhile, the young boy he carried on his shoulder gave her a toothy smile.

Gumi grinned before looking back at her fans. "You know, 'XI' was supposed to be my last song…" the some of the masses groaned and grumbled at that.

"Encore!" One silhouette with pigtails demanded. The girl got a round of applause as well and from the small voice it seemed like thousands more raised, all saying: "Encore…encore!"

Gumi giggled. "Well, it's not like I can say no to all of you." The microphone was now steady in her grip. "Actually, I've got a brand new song I want to try out with you." Unbeknownst to the green haired girl, backstage a woman in black gaped. The suited woman stomped onto the stage and was tripped by the purple haired man before being seen by the singer or the fans. Gumi instead flicked her head to her band at the far left of the stage. "You guys know the music for 'Life Cheating Game' right?" The musicians nodded. "Awesome."

Gumi closed her eyes. Instead of the crowd she now could see a slow, placid stream of green zeros and ones changing to orange kanji in her mind. She opened her mouth to sing them.

"Ah wait!" Gumi shook her head. "What's wrong with me – everyone!" The crowd, before murmuring amongst themselves about what the singer's odd outburst meant, now gazed at her. "You all know the other Vocaloids, and my own Internet Co. Family. Well, one person couldn't be here tonight." Gumi had to wince at the sharp boos that followed, even though she knew they weren't directed at her. "Hey! It's not like that! I know she wanted to be here too, so that's why I'm dedicating this song to her. I hope she hears it. Right now she'll need all the strength she can get."

_In this Life – Cheating Game…_

Far away from the concert, there was still someone shrieking. A man clutched to a lamppost, his palms nearly slipping from the sweat and blood smeared on them. "S-Stop, p-p-please!" He begged.

He looked back. The cracked road was being swallowed by a mountainous, inky creature. A dusky tendril slinked around the man's legs and waist. It made him scream. His suit and polo turned to brown flecks while he held on tighter and the creature pulled him closer.

"H-H-Help!" No one did. Everyone was too busy running away themselves or getting wounded people to safety. The man looked to the sky, the steel buildings that towered him before now were crumpled nubs of metal and stone. He had seen one monster swallow the edifice whole. The man could feel his own skin sinking into the scalding hold of this creature. His mind swam with wave after wave of panic. He screamed again, he pled again for someone to save him from the fate of the devoured building.

But that only seemed to make the creature burn him faster, pull him deeper. He slammed his eyes shut when his fingers finally slipped off the metal pole. He was reeled in by the creature but could not bare watch his fate.

…_the Joker which sat silently at the meeting…_

The man felt himself be jerked into the air. He gulped air before he landed with a thud on the pavement. He winced, the pain of the fall grounded against the aches of his wounds and his burns. His eyes, blurry with tears, could make out a golden figure.

"Get the hell out of here." The golden figure, young woman he realized from her feminine voice, ordered. "Viruses don't like it all that much when I interrupt their dinner. Though they get over it pretty soon. They even give me the honor of being dessert."

"What?" The man stammered.

The woman pushed him out of the way. His face only escaped the Virus's grip by inches. Other tendrils whipped towards the girl but the golden notes that swirled around her blocked them. The notes then spread out. He noticed her bright blue eyes first, but then he saw a microphone. She started to sing and then she ran straight towards the Virus. Her long blonde hair flew behind her like a cape.

She jumped when she was inches from the Virus, avoiding more dusky tentacles. The golden notes coalesced at the tip of the microphone and the blonde swung it down. Yellow light beat down on the Virus's head and the creature wailed. The man had to cover his ears.

…_sneers as, eventually, all feelings had vanished…_

The shadowy creature looked as if it were burning now. Amoke appeared as the Virus shrunk under the girl's attack. The bright notes beat deep into the monster, blasting off chunk after chunk till there was simply nothing left but fading plumes and the torn up streets.

"Yeesh." Someone else spoke just as the man uncovered his ears. The man whirled behind him.. Another melodious lady held him up. "Five in a row, you're really are burning tonight, Yuri – chan."

The blonde rolled her eyes. "Ha, ha, nice pun Meiko – san." The heroine's legs began to wobble, just as much as the man's legs. "I told you and that other thick – headed android I'd be –"

The man felt gravity remember him for only the moment it took Meiko to let go of him and catch her friend just before the heroine hit the asphalt. The brunette with a bob cut grinned as the blonde with lengthy hair grimaced. "What were you saying, Yuri – chan?"

The heroine glanced everywhere but the rust – colored eyes of the woman who helped her. "Thanks Meiko - san."

"Don't be cold, Lily - chan! It's Meiko – _chan_! We're kin remember?" A new, high – pitched voice called from behind him. He had been so distracted by, well, nearly dying and being saved by some androids that he forgot he could not float. Someone else had to be holding him. He twisted himself to see his assister.

…_Even so, for those that later decides things like reason for existing…_

"You!" The man gasped. "You're that robot idol singer, Ha - tune, Ha - tone, Hatsune Miku!" Glee grew in the girl's teal eyes, when she nodded her teal pigtails seemed to jump with joy as well. "My daughter is a big fan – probably you're biggest! She likes the rest of you all too though." Meiko puffed her cheeks at that. It took him a second to recall that referring to her as "the rest of you all" might not be flattering. He switched subjects: "I was going to surprise her by coming back home from my business trip a week earlier than she thought but that _viral _thing or whatever tore the bus I was on in half…" He sighed. "You know, I might just call home now. I'm started to realize that surprises are overrated."

"Aw, don't that!" Miku chided in a sing-song voice. "Trust me! There are plenty of good surprises left!"

"It'll shock the crap out of me if we can stop stalling and get home before my battery dies out." Lily grumbled. The man forced himself away from Miku and shakily stood up on his own two feet. Blue eyes, lighter than his daughters' blue eyes, locked on him again. He slumped, trying to shrink like the Virus since he couldn't figure what he had done to unsettle the blonde so. "And another thing," Lily snapped. He squinted. "Don't keep that kid of yours wondering about you. She'd probably like a call."

He smiled slightly at her and he turned away. He heard the clanking of boots, like the multi - chromed ones Lily wore, heading in the opposite direction.

…_Let's sneer by ourselves as we pray with guidance!_

* * *

**A/N:** I'm back and I've missed Lily! Though, i'll admit that this fic will be a little less centered around her. I'm excited to answer all the questions I left open in _Lily's Flowering Days: First Disc. _Also, look for BRS shoutouts starting now, I put a couple in this chapter alone.

Don't worry. Once my finals are over then I will start posting for _Blood of Mine _and _Tangled in Fate _too.

As before, I own nothing Vocaloid related or Black Rock Shooter related. I did make the story though.


	2. Background Noise

_**Track Number 2: Background Noise**_

"Crap." Lily slumped onto the couch. She bopped her head onto the table, but that did little to help her mood since audience's applause still rung in her ears – the laptop that showed the video clip of Gumi's performance last week was right next to her ear. Her flaxen strands were being mussed up when she did rise. Gumi smiled, and then moved her hand from Lily's hair to Lily's shoulder. The friendly pat her verdant – eyed friend gave her only made Lily groan though. "Can't you yell at me or something?"

"Why would I do that?" Gumi asked. She finally hopped over the couch and sat next to Lily. The blonde sighed.

"You go on and on and on about this concert for days. 'It's my just going to be me up there Lily! Gakupo said he tripped over his robe during the first song of his first show Lily! What if that happens to me Lily?! What if I screw up some other way Lily? Can you be backstage Lily? I need your support Lily!' And wouldn't you know it? Fifteen minutes before the curtain rises five Viruses surround Shibuya." Lily plopped back against the couch. "And I left you."

"Oh that, that's fine Lily!" Gumi said, she even laughed a bit for the blonde's sake but the sharp, forced laugh only reinforced Lily's guilt. "Besides, I know you already. Virus Hunting comes first."

"It's not like that…"

"Gumi – nee – chan!" The bucktoothed boy from the concert ran down the hallway. "The producer lady from last week wants to talk to you! It's the one Gakupo – nii – chan tripped…she's still kinda mad that I laughed. She screamed, a lot." He rubbed the Gachapin headphones shielding his ears.

"Thanks Ryuto." Gumi touched her own ears and snapped her figures. "Ah, I guess my memory bank is a little slow today. I left my headphones in my room." With one more reassuringly un-assuring pat on Lily's shoulder by Gumi the two green haired androids ran upstairs.

_So with Gakupo doing that Google song with Megurine – san, I'm alone for a bit. _Lily plopped on the couch once more, save that this time she held on to one couch cushion and balled up somewhat. _Thank goodness. _

She looked at the laptop again. The YouTube video had finally stopped playing. On the right side of the screen were related videos that Lily scanned them before she stopped. Towards the end of the page was a small picture. Much like last week Meiko was holding her, but in this picture her hair was slicked back. Coupled with elaborate, curve – hiding clothes and a showing bright red tattoo on her neck that matched one on Lily's arm, Meiko looked like some boyish girl from a shojou manga. Lily on the other hand was in a delicate lilac dress and frilly matching headband, the headband and dress she attempted to shred upon sight (but it's not like the producers would release any of those scenes for the video). She grazed her neck, not remembering the tattoo, the photo shoot, or even song. She remembered how Meiko tried to crush her windpipe two weeks before the video hit the web.

_Though it wasn't really Meiko's fault, it's not like she asked to get infected by the First. _Lily sighed once more. _I still can't believe there was a Virus right beneath my nose for so long and I couldn't see it! And I don't know how many more of those technology controlling Viruses are left!_

"Ah! Lily!" Gumi's voice broke her thoughts as it wafted from the second floor to Lily. "You've got a Tuner appointment today in two hours. Do you want the producers to send a car for you or will you take B.B?"

_Argh, no more cars for a while, they're nothing but trouble. _"I'll head out on B.B! How long did they say it would take?"

"They said at least till eleven! Hm, that's odd." Gumi answered. Lily grimaced. Yakuto, the 'robot doctor' as Ryuto called every Tuner, wasn't known for being that slow. "And they said it's not Yakuto –san!"

"What?!" Lily cried. That made her run up the stairs, swing the door to Gumi's room open and yank the goggle-headphone hybrid off the girl's head before screeching: "What do you mean Yakuto – kun's not working on me?! The deal was no Tuner but him!"

_I wasn't aware of any deal…_ Lily blinked. It didn't even take her a second to recognize the new voice in her head. _Who is this Yakuto – kun to you?_

"Um, ah, sorry Lily." The producer on the phone stammered, "But the new Tuner from Taiwan insisted. She said you wouldn't refuse."

She tossed the goggle headphones back to Gumi, who fumbled them for a bit before letting out a breath of relieved air when she caught them. Lily fumed in her mind. "Who he is none of your business Luo – san! And what's with the telepathy again?!"

_You're very defensive. Though I guess since your job is to defend Tokyo, I understand why Kaiganone would build these temperaments into. _Luo told her. Lily growled. _Scary Lily, very scary…_the inner voice snorted. _But I figured since I'm in Japan now this way would best. Plus I know Mosh decided to travel with Karuko and the both of them are in Korea at the moment, so I was not sure if the other android with you could be trusted. _

"Gumi can be trusted just fine." Lily said. The green haired girl in question had eyes the size of dinner plates. Gumi hung up on the producer. "Now quit stalling and tell us what the hell is going on!"

_If you insist. _Gumi jumped. She looked back and forth. _Please don't worry, Gumi – san was it? I'm not a Virus. I'm the Tuner who made Project Culnoza-Culture. I'm also a friend of Lily and her late maker, Yuriko G. Kaiganone. _Lily snorted this time, "friend" was a generous term. _I'll need to borrow your roommate for the rest of the day. _

"You still haven't told me what for!" Lily folded her arms. "I'm not going if you want to do something stupid like give me red hair or give me _her _annoying personality."

_If I wanted to make a Karuko clone I would have done so ages go. _Luo said. _But there is something I'd like to change. I want to improve you Lily._

* * *

_What an ass. _Lily turned off the engine of her motorcycle. _Who does she think she is? Better than Yuriko? I don't think so!_ She yanked a chain around B. B and the bike rack. _And it's not like Yuriko had a lot of time on her hands, she had to make two Virus Hunters, teach that stuck-up excuse for a Tuner Japanese, hide from the monsters that destroyed her home._ She stomped out parking lot, walking past the building's entrance without so much as a hello to the Tuners who stopped to greeted her. She was only focused on loathsome woman who sat in the lobby.

She stood up when Lily tapped her foot in front of her. Her hair, bluish gray and in two loops in the back, made her distinguishable in the sea of brunets that wore the same white coat. _You'd think an alien on a secret mission would try to be a little more non - descript. _

"Your co-stars have green and purple hair." Luo shrugged. "My style is not so odd in a place like Tokyo. Come with me to the top floor." Lily grumbled but followed. When the elevator finally reach floor ten she bitterly remembered a tawny haired, glasses – wearing young man on the next one that probably hadn't a clue she was here.

_I don't have to feel guilty, there's no reason for it. _Lily told herself, but she still hung her head. _Yakuto – kun doesn't always need to work on me! It's fine! _A sad feeling clung to her, her gears spinning slowly as if to some somber music. _Argh, stop screwing with yourself Lily. _

"Sorry to interrupt your mental self – deprecation." Lily blanched once Luo spoke again. "But we're in my office. The Vocaloid producers have added me into one of the recently vacated offices – apparently after Sakine Meiko and a band of Viruses attacked some felt unsafe staying."

"No shit." Lily said. "And Meiko – san didn't attack them. It was the First of Mother's Specialized Viruses."

"The First was inside her," Luo grimaced. "The fact that Specialized Viruses still exist and that they are able to takeover something as complex as an android is a troubling development especially since Kaiganone insisted that you all would be immune. In fact I saw some try and fail to take over Karuko once. Yet, your maker also told me that they never had anything like androids in her old world. Technology was present but because of…other powers as she called it, it was not as advanced as Earths. Of course you know all of this."

"Actually," Lily's usually booming volume went all the way down to a whisper. "None of the notes we had before Taiwan say anything about her world or the Specialized Viruses. She didn't mention them to Mosh and she died before she could mention them to me." Blue eyes met the floor a second time. "Until I joined the Vocaloids, I didn't really know much about her."

"That is interesting." Lily glanced up. Luo's green eyes didn't betray any sympathetic feeling Lily could dig out. So instead the blonde android paced around the lab and scanned it. It was just as unassuming as the cutesy blue outfit Lily met Luo Tianyi in, aqua colored walls lined with white computers and a solid grey slab of metal in the room's middle. Lily suspected that she'd be on it soon, whenever Luo stopped being hopelessly pedantic and finally started this "improvement." Yet for now only a stuffed – toy looking creature hummed placidly, as if it were a sleeping animal instead of Luo's mechanic butler.

"Well that figures." Lily moved next to the computer the alien typed on. "The minute I leave Ximending another extraterrestrial comes."

"Another alien?"

"Only in the sense of meaning: 'not from Earth'." On the screen a newspaper article came into view. Lily saw a picture showing a hole in the ground but since the journal's prose was in Mandarin, she hadn't the slightest clue what it meant. "The title translates to: _Rock Our World: Asteroid Remnants Found in outskirts of Taipei…_oh dear, the asteroid nearly hit the building where Yuriko hid her Taiwan lab."

"Whatever," Lily said gruffly, falsely. "Besides finding her journal, that place sucked all around for me. I'm glad it's gone."

"If you say so but how do you –"

"Get to the damn point Luo!" Lily growled. "You've been jumping through hoops to get out of saying what you want to say so just spit it out!"

Luo sighed. "Alright, I'm sorry, I forget you're not Karuko and –" Lily narrowed her eyes. "Right, simply put, I think someone might have wanted to obfuscate not only the nature of the Viruses, but the nature of Kaiganone herself."

"Mother," Lily said the Virus's attributed name with dripping disdain. "Hiding around and hitting when no one can see her, it seems right up her alley. I'm going to find her and I'm going to stop her."

"I'm not against the idea, seeing as she's indirectly my adversary as well." Luo shook her head. "Though I am curious about Mother's nature."

"She's a Virus, isn't she? The First before the First."

"I do not know. I wish being a telepath made me omniscient too, but the truth is this we do not know much about the maker of the Viruses. Still, it is highly coincidentally that your maker's lab – one of the few places in the world with unearthly information and power – is the place that was reduced to rubble. If there's the slightest chance my theory holds true then you and Mosh, as inheritors to Kaiganone's information and power, are also in danger."

"Oh, woe is I!" Lily waved her hands half – heartedly before laughing out right. "On a daily basis the Viruses try to dismantle me like that asteroid did to the lab. I'm not exactly afraid of danger."

"Are you afraid for the Vocaloids?" Lily stopped laughing. "Sakine – san was already chosen as a pawn for Mother to get to you. There are still a myriad of androids around you left to choose from. If what the producers have in mind is true, they'll be many more to come by summer's end."

_I, I know. _Lily thought. Her mental voice grit out the words she didn't want to hear aloud. _I already told Gumi we're still not safe. _ "But, what can I do about it besides hunt these monsters down till Mother comes out to play?"

Luo smiled. The first smile Lily had seen from her since the Tuner brought her here. "Nothing but hunt for monsters and clues I'm afraid, but at least I can help make things a little easier by giving you a new power."

"N-New power?"

"Yes." Luo changed the image on the screen from the article to a picture of Lily, on one side she looked normal and on the next the synthetic skin and outer layer were stripped. Only the wires, gears, and hardware that made up Lily was left. "I've been reading the notes of your Yakuto –"

"He's not _my _Yakuto. Don't be stupid!"

"Anyways, with these notes plus my own no how from making Karuko, I think I can augment you with another ability, and a new song of course."

"Hmm…ah!" Lily snapped her fingers. "If you're such a super genius, can you make the power activated with a song already in my bank?"

"Of course." Luo said. "You have something in mind?"

"A dedication." Lily smiled. It was the first one for her today too. "A song for a friend."


End file.
